League of Fans, BetterDeal4DC to DC Council: Reject ‘revised’ stadium lease
The revised baseball stadium draft lease agreed to Friday by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams appears to give away even more city assets, still fails to provide for a true cap on stadium costs, still fails to legally specify who will pay for cost overruns, fails to provide for possibly shifting the stadium from South Capitol to a far less-expensive RFK Stadium site, and should be rejected immediately if a vote is taken by the Council, a citizens’ coalition said today.
“By not specifically addressing the cost overruns in a legally binding manner as Chairman Cropp herself demanded, the deal is still deficient and must be refused by the Council,” said David Mallof, a longtime D.C. resident who recently testified before the Council on the stadium deal’s failure to share the financial risks and rewards in a congruent manner.
BetterDeal4DC, a coalition of individuals and organizations opposed to public financing of a stadium, said the revised draft lease appears in certain respects to be even worse than the previous draft lease. According to news accounts, the revised draft lease — which has not yet been released to the public — expands the giveaway of public assets to Major League Baseball (MLB) by including a provision for the city to split with the team the proceeds of land sold for development at the south end of the stadium (57.5% for the city, and 42.5% for the team).
“By splitting these proceeds, Major League Baseball is taking more public assets and yet is bringing no more money to the deal to cover the incredible spiraling, out-of-control costs for a stadium at the South Capitol site,” said John Capozzi, former chairperson of the Barney Circle Neighborhood Association.
BetterDeal4DC said it could not see how city negotiators, after allowing MLB to receive virtually all of the revenue generated from the stadium, could then agree to split with MLB the added proceeds from land south of the stadium that will be expropriated by eminent domain and then subsequently sold to private interests for development. Likewise, the organization said the Mayor must explain why there is still no requirement that MLB and/or the new (yet-to-be-named) team owner pay for any cost overruns on the project, as has been customary in most recent stadium projects.
BetterDeal4DC said it appears from the marginal changes reportedly made to the draft lease that no serious negotiating on key issues went on between the city and Major League Baseball from the time Williams pulled the initial draft lease from Council consideration in late December until now. The baseball deal continues to be the biggest financial giveaway of a professional sports facility that any city has ever negotiated for the exclusive use of one team.
The organization said the Council should tell the Mayor to remove his current negotiating team and insist upon the original terms of the baseball agreement which caps the city’s all-inclusive contribution of public financing at $535 million — including costs of land acquisition, environmental remediation, parking, roads, Metro and other infrastructure improvements. Any further negotiations with MLB must include Councilmembers critical of the draft lease as ex-officio members of the city’s negotiating team, BetterDeal4DC said.
“The Mayor may well have wasted critical time this past month by drumming up what appears to be a six-figure, feel-good public relations campaign to sell a weak stadium deal to the public. He surely wasted time by unethically sponsoring a campaign fundraiser for Councilmember Kathleen Patterson together with the main local lobbyist for Major League Baseball while a vote on the stadium draft lease is imminent,” said Mallof.
BetterDeal4DC said the lease should contain the same major provision as the $535 million stadium financing package, approved by the Council in December 2004, that would permit the city to shift the stadium to an RFK site.
“RFK has the infrastructure, adequate Metro, ample parking, no land acquisition costs, no legal actions over land acquisition that could tie up the site for months or years, and already known environmental issues,” said Shawn McCarthy, director of the sports watchdog group League of Fans. “This is in stark contrast to the far more expensive South Capitol site with its lack of infrastructure, inadequate Metro facilities, lack of parking, rising land acquisition costs that could go even higher with court decisions favoring landowners, and unknown environmental issues.”
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Take Action!
Contact the following key DC Councilmembers and urge them to Vote to reject the new draft lease:
Kwame Brown, 724-8174, [email protected]
Vincent Gray, 724-8068, [email protected]
Carol Schwartz, 724-8105, [email protected]
Phil Mendelson, 724-8064, [email protected]
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a long-time member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books